Dozens of small satellites launched by Russia nearly crashed into an Israeli reconnaissance satellite earlier this week.

A few months ago, Russia launched 43 small satellites into space. Some of them were later discovered to be moving directly toward the Israeli reconnaissance satellite AROS-B, operated by ImageSat International, which provides imagery to the Israeli security establishment.

A company official said a collision could have caused millions of shekels in damage. "If one of the (Russian satellites) had been hurt, it wouldn't have caused major damage, but the Israeli satellite costs almost $300 million so we had to divert it off its course to save it from collision," he said.